Duration: 6:40

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Step-by-step content for this video tutorial can be found at https://www.indezine.com/products/powerpoint/learn/animationsandtransitions/transitions/morph-exclamation-named-objects.html

You may also want to see the previous tutorials on using the Morph transition within PowerPoint listed below:

Getting Started with Morph in PowerPoint
https://www.indezine.com/products/powerpoint/learn/animationsandtransitions/transitions/morph-first.html

Using the Morph Transition with Curve Shapes in PowerPoint
https://www.indezine.com/products/powerpoint/learn/animationsandtransitions/transitions/morph-curve-tool-animations.html

It’s easy to duplicate your slides, make some differences in the slide objects on the duplicated slide, and then add the Morph transition. And PowerPoint creates a tween effect based on the differences between the two slides. You can keep duplicating slides and making small changes in these duplicated slides, and Morph takes care of the smooth movements. That’s the basic Morph technique, which we have already explored. In this tutorial, we’ll learn further. If you want to learn basic Morph techniques, I’ll leave links to the Morph introduction tutorials on the description below if you are watching on YouTube. If you are watching these videos on my site, then again, there are links to those tutorials in the first paragraph.

Now let’s look at how you can take two existing slides that are different. In fact, let us begin from scratch, and create two slides. On one slide, we will place a square. On the second slide, we will similarly add a circle.

Let us now access Slide Sorter view and select both slides. You can use the Ctrl + A keyboard shortcut to select all slides in Slide Sorter view. If you are on a Mac version of PowerPoint, use the Cmd + A keyboard shortcut.

Next, access the Transitions tab of the Ribbon, and select the Morph transition effect in the Transitions gallery. Doing so applies the Morph transition effect to both slides.

Let us now test this Morph transition effect by playing the slides in Slide Show view. You’ll notice that the rectangle does not morph into an oval.
Why doesn’t a successful Morph take place between the square and the circle? That's because whereas a square has four points, this circle has none. So, the Morph transition effect does not know where to begin the transition from and where to end. Let's face it, we did not duplicate slides like we have done in previous tutorials so that PowerPoint can intelligently guess our intentions.

Fortunately, you can remedy this situation by using exclamation-named objects. So, what are exclamation-named objects? Hold on to those thoughts, and we will explain more later in this tutorial.

The first slide with the square is now our active slide. Let us access the Home tab of the Ribbon and click the Select button to bring a drop-down menu with options as you can see. Click the Selection Pane option and what's going to happen is you will bring up the Selection Pane on the right side of the PowerPoint interface. The shortcut key to bring up the Selection Pane is Alt + F10. The same shortcut key toggles as an option to hide the Selection Pane.

Now, select the square in the Selection Pane, and you will see the name is now editable. We will now type in a new name that begins with two exclamation marks and ends with two exclamation marks as well. We renamed our square shape to !!MorphShape01!!

Now similarly select the circle on the second slide and rename it within the Selection Pane as !!MorphShape01!!. Remember to use the same name and be sure to add two exclamation marks before and after the name.

Now, test the Morph transition effect by playing the slides in Slide Show view. You’ll notice that the square morphs amazingly well into a circle.

This square to circle Morph was simple and easy. But imagine the amazing stuff you can do by naming your objects with the exclamation marks, letting PowerPoint know the objects you want to be morphed. This simple trick can help you create animations that never seemed possible in PowerPoint before.